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A lot to tell you about Claire and I´s time in Ecuador, so I´ll crack right on with it!
Arriving in Quito on the evening of 15th December, rather hugry, we over indulged at a Mongolian buffet, and sipped one too many cocktails. The next day, we casually ventured to the ´middle of the World´which was about 2 hours out of Quito on the bus and to be honest somewhat a bit of an anti-climax. Having taken the token photo of one leg either side we headed back into the city and walked around the old town. Fairly pretty, but not a great deal to do and it became apparent that I also had $150 pickpocketed on the metrobus. The following day we took a tour to the snow-capped Volcan Cotopaxi, which has a summit of 5900m. We though drove to 4200m and began our climb upto 5000m where we able to see a pretty spectacular glacier. After a little rest and a descent on foot back to 4200m, we then wacked on a helmet and mountain biked back down to its base where a small Laguna sat. When the guie told me I would need a pair of gloves for this descent on bike, I laughed it off, but quickly regreted not taking his advice...ice actually formed on my finger hairs, making the first half of the journey far from painless, having to hold down the breaks vigorously, in order to stop myself from flying off the volcano every time a tight bend came.
Anyway, enough of that. The next day, we headed south to a small town called Baños, and what would usually be a rather uneventful and boring journey for 6 hours, became probably the most eventful and unboring bus journey of my life. With both Claire and I dozzing off, it became apparent that my bag had been stolen from under my seat, which had all my valuables in it, bar, luckily, my passport, which Claire had. The thief, sitting directly behind me, had jumped off the bus probably around 500m before I woke up and noticed my bag had gone. Claire immedietely tol the driver, who with only a moments thought turned the bus round and headed back down the motorway. The man sitting opposite us, said he could identify him, and with more than a stroke of luck, and the fact that the thief had got off the bus in the middle of nowhere, there he was, waiting on the side of the road. With screams of get him from all the women on the bus, the bus driver, he conducter (armed with a 4 ft wooden club, and I chased him down the side of the motorway, followed by almost every other man on the bus. being caught and blocked off by and oncoming bus, he dropped the bag and jumped out of the way, preserving his personal safety! Luckily, thanks to a padlock on my bag, everything remained and as I reboarded the bus (a little out of breath), I was greeted with cheers and pats on the back. Very, Very lucky indeed!
Arriving in Baños, still in disbelief at what had happened, we checked into a great little hostel called Santa Cruz, with a huge room, with two floors for a ridiculously cheap price. That afternoon we took a relaxing dip in some thermal baths situated directly under a huge waterfall and in the evening, we took a a volcano trip on a make-shift chiva in the hope of seeing it spew some lava, as it had been doing, the two previos nights. Unfortunately the clouds had come over and no activity was to be seen but we did get a great view of the whole city, lit up by all its lights. The following day, Claire insisted that I went to the Doctor´s. I had been having trouble with my left ear ever since we went diving, with it leaking some wax and being constantly blocked. being a man, and assuming it would go away, I obviously left it, but on consultation by Doc. Diego Mauricio he was able to tell me that I had an infection in both ears and in fact a burst left ear drum. With Claire translating, he then administered me two injections in the bum and a prescribtion, and fortunately, within the week the problem was fixed. Later that day, with cotton ool stuffed in my ear, we rented a two person quad bike and tore up the town for an hour, before heading for some dinner, but unfortunately no alcohol for me, for a few days at least!
The following day we caught a bus further south to Riobabamba, which was the boarding point for the Devil´s Nose train ride we caught early the next day. It took us via Sibambe and then back up to Aluisi where we got off, sitting on the roof of the train for the lasthour of the journey, taking in a cool breeze and some great views of the surrounding mountains. Immedietly catching a bus from Aluisi, we arrived in Cuenca 5 hours later, where we spent a couple of nights. Cuenca is a pretty town, but really has nothing to do! Pleased to leave and approaching Christmas we got ourselves over to the Pacfic coast, to a tiny beach town called Montañita. We splashed out a bit and checked into a nice hotel, with a swimming pool, jacuzi and ocean views, and planned to relax and catch a few rays for the following four days. We did however, take a trip to the Isla De la Plata, which ultimately turned into a bit of a boring bird watching excursion, and also took a surf lesson, which as the two hours went by I progressively got worse at! Other than that we had a Christmas lunch of fresh prawns, rice and chips and chilled out to the max! Leaving Montañita, we spent a night in Puerto Lopez, and hour north, and chilled out on a beautiful beach inside the Parque Nacional, before heading back to Quito for one last night, where I flew out of, into Mexico to meet Mark and Claire headed to Peru to spend New Year on the beach with her friend Gina.
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and a fun New Year. May 2009, bring you everything you want...
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